Joshua Cantrell's Trip Page

About This Page

I would like to share some of my experiences and trip information (like
pictures) to people I know on the WWW, so I have made this WWW page.
Since not everyone can or has been everywhere, it might help broaden
what they know about the world they live in. :-)

JPEG appears to be quite useful in compressing photo quality pictures, so
I was able to compress most pictures to 100KBs without sacrificing much
detail or image quality (most of that was lost in scanning the photos!).
JPEG reminds me of the good/bad qualities of quicksort. Quicksort is great
if the elements are extremely unsorted, but is awful if the elements are
already mostly sorted. JPEGs seem to be really good at pictures with
gradual changes in color and soft edges, but not that good when it becomes
line art.

The type of scanner used appears to make some differences in the quality
of the pictures. For this reason I'm going to give the name of the scanners
used in the pictures and possibly other information that could help explain
defects in the scanned images.

I don't have all of them accessible on-line because I'm not sure if I want
everyone to see my photos. The WWW is a great place to share with good
people, but there are people who can misuse information you make available.
My pictures aren't exactly something I want to be misused. If you would
like to learn about any of my trips, simply send me an e-mail and maybe we
can work something out.

Camping Trips

Camping trips, to me, are defined by traveling in a vehicle, parking at
some site and then doing some site seeing, which often involves a great
deal of hiking. Also, more often than not, I give up certain amenities
while I'm camping - I don't bathe every day. If I went camping and
expected to bring my luxuries of home with me, I don't think I'd really
call it camping. I don't know why people have to bring radios and play
them really loud when they are camping.

Tufa, Posts, & Ancient Trees (Summer
1997) (Mustek Paragon 800 IISP) - My father, youngest brother, and
I all went out on a trip to see
Mono Lake, Devils Postpile National Monument, and
The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. These are in the southeast
quarter of California, north of Death Valley. Often in this trip I had
to take some time and ignore the conflicts that seemed to abound between
my father and youngest brother, and the crazy ideas my father
continously tried to promote. But overall, it was great not sitting
in front of a computer or worrying about work!

Lava Beds National Monument (Summer 1998) (HP ScanJet 6200C) -
These excessively JPEGed images are from at trip that I didn't take
because I was busy TAing for CS61A at UC Berkeley. Lava Beds
National Monument in northern California holds a special place
in my memories because we went there so often when I was a child.
I like exploring the caves formed with basalt, Captain Jack's
Stronghold, and hicking up cindercones and down into the Hidden
Valley (the one that's there, not the one you are probably thinking
about). My mother, father, two brothers, and a friend went on this
trip.

Return to the Ancient Trees (Summer 1999) (HP ScanJet 6200C) -
My father and I
were on the High Sierra Trail with one of my father's friends and
his nephew, but had to turn back. Since it was a one way trip and his
friend and nephew needed a ride back at the end of the line at
Mt. Whitney Portal, we dropped by The Ancient Bristlecone Pine
Forest for a few days before picking them up.

Backpacking Trips

Backpacking Trips are even more challenging than camping trips because
you hike in away from your car for miles. There are some beautiful
areas that cannot be seen by just hiking short distances, so backpacking
becomes a necessity. Personally, I wouldn't backpack just to go fishing
or simply to hike. There has to be some aspect of beauty to draw me
there.

High Sierra Trail to Mt. Whitney (Summer 1999) (HP ScanJet 6200C)
- My father, his
friend and nephew, and I were all going to hike to the top of
Mt. Whitney starting at Sequoia National Park! Yes, it was going to
be a great nine day trip! Beautiful scenery (if you neglected the haze)
and a challenge (my father called this adventure) to complete!
In the end my father and I had to return two days in because we had
packed too much and were not really in good enough shape for the
pace we were hiking.

Sightseeing Trips

Sightseeing Trips are different from camping trips in that you
can take baths regularly. This means you could be staying at
an RV park, hotel, or motel. The end result is a higher density
of other sightseers who take advantage of the easy transition
from home life to travel life.

Disneyland, California (Summer 1999) (HP ScanJet 6200C) -
As a present for my brother and I graduating from UC Berkeley,
my father, mother, two other brothers, and I all went to Disneyland
for five days! (Not five full days.) It's my favorite themepark,
so I'm always happy to have a chance to go there every once in
awhile.

Universal Studios, California (Summer 1999) (HP ScanJet
6200C) - During one of the days at Disneyland, we went to
Universal Studios. They certainly had some impressive rides,
but I still like their tour tram better! Overall, Disneyland
rides are oriented more for fun than those at Universal
Studios, which appear to have more violent themes.

Huntington Gardens, Caliornia (Summer 1999) (HP ScanJet
6200C) - One of the days at Disneyland, my father and mother, and
and I decided to see the Huntington Gardens. My father and
mother both like plants, and I simply wanted to see something
new and refreshing (I hadn't been there before). Our legs
started to give out on us half way through the gardens, so we
didn't go everywhere I wanted to go, but still saw enough to
see that it is worth returning!

General Trips

Some trips are difficult to classify. For example, when you move
into a new house, I think of that as a trip. It's just a one way
type trip if you are the person moving in. :-)

Shane Moves to University of Washington (Summer 1999)
(HP ScanJet 6200C) - My father and mother, twin brother (Shane),
and I all went north to Seattle, Washington to Shane move into
his new apartment (new for him, old in age). We also walked
around the University he was soon going to attend as an Electrical
Engineering graduate student.

Joshua Moves to UCLA (Summer 1999) (unscanned) - My father and
mother, and I (Joshua) all went south to Los Angeles, California to
move me into my new apartment (new for me, old in age). My parents
had to leave before seeing the campus on this trip, but they had
seen it when we went to Disneyland anway. I of course saw the campus
many times after the initial move in.